By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 6, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03
Leonidas Paula’s ill-gotten gains from the cocaine sales he made from his Little Ferry apartment until he was arrested 16 months ago will go to good use helping local law enforcement fight crime.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Little Ferry Police Department recently were on the receiving end of a check for $135,000, which was split 50-50. It was their share of $169,000 that Paula forfeited as part of a 15-year prison sentence for three counts of cocaine distribution and one count of maintaining a drug-production facility.
“This is just a great way to hurt drug dealers because you are hitting them where it hurts in the pocketbook,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy.
The 1986 Crime Control Act provides for law enforcement agencies to share in the proceeds from criminal investigations in which they were involved. Robert Van Etten, U.S. Customs special agent-in-charge, presented the check in Fahy’s office.
“It’s like Christmas in March,” Little Ferry Police Chief Donald Fleming said. “We are going to be frugal with the money. . . . We are going to update the narcotics division in the detective bureau, buy some new equipment, and send people to courses.”
Paula was charged in November 1990 after five men who had bought cocaine from him were arrested coming out of his North Village apartment, which was under surveillance by Little Ferry police and the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force. Among other things, authorities seized $9,282 and bank accounts in New York City and numbers to safe-deposit boxes that later yielded $169,000.
ID: 17370686 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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